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city hyderabad Dialing
1257? No more, oh never more!
There
are moments in one's life that will forever remain frozen in memory. Karachi
panicked and froze simultaneously on December 27, 2007, and in the days to
come. The news of Benazir Bhutto's death shocked the world; and the moment
that the news was heard is one that every individual is bound to remember
for a long time. By
Amina Baig Mahpaikar
Jawed, a housewife, watched over all the food she was preparing for a big
dinner at her house. Her brother had just returned home after performing
Hajj and she wanted to give him a Her
first thoughts were of her children, who had not yet returned from work; and
they stayed with her children till they got home, much later that night.
Suffice to say, her dinner wasn't as happy an occasion as she had hoped it
would be. All the
way across Karachi, Amir drove his rickshaw on a bumpy Gulistan-e-Jauhar
road. "Out of no where, people started firing guns, throwing stones at
cars and screaming," says Amir, "I didn't realize why this was
happening till someone told me Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated."
In an
almost poetic gesture, the lights of commercial areas went out as soon as
the news spread. However, the reasons behind turning lights off was far more
somber. Anwar,
who sells corn on a busy street near Uzma Arcade knew something was wrong
the minute all the lights on the otherwise brightly lit street went out.
"Seconds after the blackout, I heard men shouting for everyone to close
down their shops and get out of there," says Anwar, "within
minutes the whole area became chaotic as shopkeepers rushed to shut their
businesses down and customers ran to their cars and homes." "I
was at home, sleeping," says Shaheryar Husain, a student visiting home
from Australia. "My
mother who is in Hyderabad called me and told me Benazir had been killed.
Initially I thought it Sayd
Noor, a gatekeeper, got off his duty hours and went to the barber's. As he
waited his turn, he heard uproar outside. It was the same story all over
Karachi; the faces were different, but the demands were the same. "Men
with sticks and guns wanted everyone to shut down their shops," says
Sayd Noor, "for people to go home and no one to be seen on the
streets." "I
was driving down Khayaban-e-Shahbaz when my girlfriend's sister called
her," says Omair, a student, "she told her Benazir had died and
wanted her sister to get home, the roads weren't too bad then, but I could
see people panicking as more and more cars piled up on the roads; everybody
honking and trying to get out of there first."
"I
was working," says the young makeup artist, "but I believed the
news right away and tried to get home on my motorcycle." Minhaj had to
stop in Haji Camp for a while before he could go further on as there was
"just too much chaos on the roads." "I
left for home later that night and got followed by four men, I escaped them
somehow. What was really eerie were the rows and rows of burnt cars and
objects on the silent roads," says Minhaj sadly. Shocking
and hurtful as the news was, one can say safely that two things bound
Karachiites closer than ever on the night of December 27; fear for their
loved ones and fear for their country. Mahpaikar
Jawed couldn't get through to any of her children as all mobile networks
were constantly "It
is true that Pakistanis have that warrior's spirit," says Shaheryar,
"but I shudder when I think of what might happen next." Anwar
feels cheated, "there is a mother at home and then there is the woman
who is mother to the entire country," he says, "we just lost that
mother." Pakistanis
will not forget December 27 anytime soon. Those who witnessed this day
shared immense grief at the loss of a leader, whether they admired or were
wary of her. It is also the day that the destiny Pakistanis share as a
nation took an unexpected turn. While this day may become a memory frozen in
time, it has at the same time forced most to look ahead and become conscious
of the stake they hold in the future of Pakistan. Apathy in tragic times The
days that followed Benazir Bhutto's assassination were made more upsetting
by the manner in which people behaved during the mourning period. By
Ayecha Ahmed Benazir
Bhutto's death shocked Pakistan and threw most of the country into
depression. But instead of keeping calm the nation went wild. Karachi being
the prime victim of violence had to suffer the The
situation was tragic, but looting shoe shops doesn't make much sense as an
expression of grief. Hundreds
of cars were set on fire and shops were burnt or broken, painting Karachi in
shades of hearbreak. The residents of the city had to suffer more. People
weren't able to get out of their houses and if under dire circumstances one
absolutely had, to besides being terrorized one found next to nothing in the
markets as the entire city's business had come to a standstill. My
brother got injured in the riots and though he came home safely, we weren't
able to get his wound checked anywhere. No clinic in the locality was open.
Fortunately a neighbour, who happens to be a doctor, examined the wound.
Although the head injury had bled profusely, it was no longer dangerous. The
doctor told my brother to still get a tetanus shot or it may get
troublesome. We went out to hunt for any pharmacy that could give us tetanus
vaccine. The empty roads did indicate that there won't be any place open,
but we still tried our luck. Eventually we found a shop open. The store that
never has customers on normal days had a huge queue outside it. The vaccine
wasn't available. So we decided on going to the DHA Medical Center. Thankfully
the medical center was open and we were pretty sure we would get the
vaccine. Apparently there was no doctor there. The person at the reception
wasn't helpful at all. After explaining how my brother was injured and how
every place was shut, we were expecting him to be sympathetic, but instead
he laughed us off saying the medical center has limited supplies and caters
to DHA employees only. It was strange, there we were ready to pay any price
for the vaccine and he just wasn't relenting. As far as helping a fellow man
was concerned, this receptionist had already gone out his way to offer a
room to a sick woman and the rest of Karachi would just have to comfort
itself with this act of generosity. The
violence following Benazir Bhutto's assassination brought tears to my
family's eyes more than once. A cousin of mine, who was pregnant, had gone
to pick her husband from a conference at Pearl Continental.
As riots broke out on the roads outside, the couple was forced to
stay the night at the hotel. The colossal amount of cash she had to spend
for the only empty suite wasn't the only thing she parted with that night.
Sometime later that night she started feeling sick with pain. There
wasn't anywhere she could go, so she had to stay there till the next
morning. As the pain she felt became unbearable, she forced her family to
pick her up from the hotel and take her to the hospital, which is at the
other end of the city. The doctors at the emergency ward informed her that
she'd had a miscarriage. One
really can't blame doctors for not being on duty during the four days the
city mourned. Nor can one blame pharmacies for being shut; it just wasn't
safe to step out during those four days. However what one did expect were
acts of kindness during shared hard times. As the
gentleman at the medical center proved though, expecting kindness not
granted can cause bitterness much worse than what might have led to the
catastrophic situation in the first place. And while ordinary citizens
completely empathized with shops being shut and utilities not being
available during the four days Karachi mourned, it is hard to extend
anything but anger towards those who used the tragedy as an excuse to
literally tear the city apart. hyderabad blues Coming back to life The army
came to Hyderabad to control the law and order situation, though it was a
bit late. Now that incidents of violence are no longer a problem, it is
pulling people back to their feet that is a challenge which must be met
immediately... By
Adeel Pathan Despite the fact that
there have been large scale protests in the country to curb army
intercession in Pakistani politics and administrative affairs, district
governments looked to the army to control violent activities breaking out
all over the country following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The assassination of the
former Prime Minister and Chairperson of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is
still being mourned by people not only in Pakistan, but also abroad. However
the madness displayed by some protestors in Hyderabad and parts of Sindh was
less than commendable. Hyderabad, being the
political gateway of Sindh, reacts to every thing very quickly but the city
responded rather ferociously post December 27. Large-scale violence
erupted all over the city soon
after the news of the assassination became public. Roads and streets were
flooded with protestors carrying sticks. Initially these just included party
loyalists, but they were later joined by miscreants who changed the
atmosphere of mourning into that of senseless crime. Vehicles on the road were
torched indiscriminately. Cars parked in government and private office
parking lots were pulled out and reduced to ashes. A daily wage worker,
Sohail, who works in a garage, tells Kolachi that he suffered badly due to
closure of shops and markets for four days. As he could not earn his daily
wages, Sohail spent days starving since he had no money to buy food with. Initially Rangers and then
the army were called in to Hyderabad to control the law and order situation.
The decision was a belated one, as the police's inefficiency to deal with
the situation was exposed through the media and the violent protests had
taken their toll. The presence of army
troops brought an end to the violence and hardly any incident occurred after
their intervention. Despite the situation having stabilized to a certain
extent, citizens and other components of society including traders are still
fearful. Hyderabad saw a lot of
damage before the army troops came in; offices, banks, factories, industries
and petrol pumps were torched. Agitators also started looting goods stored
in godowns especially in the wholesale grocery market. The role of the district
government was also questioned as members restricted themselves to
statements. Despite pressure by the union councils, elected representatives
didn't come out and pacify protestors to control and contain the situation. Shaukat Ali Shah, a senior
police official remarked at a press conference that, "an atomic
explosion would have caused less damage," while referring to the way
public and private property was damaged during the three days of violence. A labourer, Aslam Khan,
who earns his living selling dry fruits at Tower Market is now left with a
torched cart and wonders how he will make up for his loss and continue with
business in the future. A district police official
is of the opinion that the police were not prepared to deal with the
situation of unrest as reorganization of forces takes time. The official
said that 900 policemen had been deployed to protocol duty of caretaker
Chief Minister of Sindh. The police has started
registering cases of arson against thousands of unknown people along with
some PPP workers in Hyderabad. The army has started recovering looted goods
which raises hope of traders gaining relief from the loss they suffered. After the actual mourning
period was over, life in Hyderabad remained paralyzed with rampant rumours
of firing incidents. Fear gripped citizens who had still not recovered from
the trauma of the mishaps they had witnessed. An elderly citizen sharing
their grief over the death of Ms Bhutto said, "this is a testing time
for Pakistanis, I have not witnessed violence of such magnitude in
decades." Authorities should plan
political, as well as administrative measures to contain the crisis without
further aggravating it. Though involvement of the army at this point was
essential, civil institutions should be developed to cope with such
situations; especially in the cities. As a commission has been
formed by the government to assess damage caused by violent incidents in
Sindh, care should be taken to reimburse those who suffered losses as soon
as possible. Dialing 1257? No more, oh never more! All
those who have stocked Callmate calling cards hoping to use them someday
should prepare to paste them in a scrapbook to pass on to future generations
By
Sabeen Jamil "People
swarm our offices daily to know when our service will resume but we tell
them that only a fortune teller or PTCL authorities can answer that
question," says Shujaat Ali Qarni, the Chairman of the company. Callmate
Telips Telecom Limited (CTTL) has provided various telecommunication
services, payphones and prepaid calling cards in Pakistan since 2003 (and
the TELIPS alone since 1991 before a merger Since
millions of rupees of buyers
and the distributors of the cards has been tied up in used and unused cards,
the company has stopped supplying fresh cards to the market amid the rumors
that it is on the verge of closure. The company's Chairman however denies
the rumors saying, "we are coming to our offices daily and paying
millions to our staff monthly, how can anyone claim we are closing
down?" Shujaat
says that the cards are no longer functional because PTCL has closed down
their connections for not paying off the dues of one billion rupees that the
former management of the company was supposed to. "On the fifth day we
took over the company a few
weeks back, PTCL closed down our connections for
non-payment of dues" Shujaat
points out that the former management was indebted to PTCL for years but
their connections were never disconnected which is strange, "because
PTCL disconnects landlines for nonpayment of even a few hundred
rupees." Shujaat
laments that his management was never given the privileges given to the
former one. "We have notified PTCL for this injustice. We have told
them that we cannot pay dues immediately but we are ready to pay them off in
installments along with our current bills." Strenuous
negotiations are underway between Callmate Telips and PTCL, the company that
serves as an exchange for all calling cards in the country along with
selling cards of its own. "PTCL
has relented a bit and has stated that they do not want a potential partner
(Callmate) to fail." Shujaat
is hopeful of a consensus with PTCL for Callmate has earned PTCL up to 2.6
billion rupees in profits over the years and, "we are able to earn the
profit of up to four billion rupees in the coming years." Shujaat
however admits that this would be possible only when the company starts
working again. And when might that be? Shujaat is uncertain since both
companies haven't reached an official consensus so far. This
uncertainty is overwhelming for Shahzad Aslam who sells calling cards at his
small general store in bahadurabad. "I have Callmate cards worth twenty
five thousand rupees right now and I am offered hundred such cards every day
by my customers who want money in exchange for them."
Shahzad
is told by his friends everyday that the company is closing down soon but he
seems mostly unconcerned, "I think I will get my cards exchanged by the
company that takes over Callmate so I am not worried that my money will be
wasted. It is just that my twenty five thousand rupees have been tied up for
weeks." However
he is not that optimistic for customers, "I don't think they will be
paid back if the company closes down." Shahzad adds that his customers
are apprehensive they will never be compensated for the cards they bought
that have expired by now. The company however assures its clientele that it
will not let it incur any loss, "not
even of a single penny! We will extend the expiry period for every card when
we will are functional again," states Shujaat. But when? Callmate
Telips is at a loss for words.
By
Kaleem Omar Ava
Gardner, who died of pneumonia in Westminster, England on January 25, 1990
at the age of 67, was an Academy Award-nominated actress who is listed as
one of the American Film Institute's greatest stars of all time. Arguably
the most beautiful woman ever to grace the silver screen, she spent her last
drink-ravaged years living anonymously in London. No adoring fans swarmed
around her for her autograph; no paparazzi chased her; no restaurant maitre
des fawned over her. It
wasn't like that in the mid-1950s, though, when she came to Pakistan to make
"Bhowani Junction," a film based on John Masters' best selling
novel of the same name. Most of the film's scenes were shot in Lahore, with
the city's railway station doubling as the fictional Bhowani Junction.
Near-riots broke out wherever Gardner went in Pakistan, with people shoving
and jostling to catch a glimpse of her. On her way to Lahore, she stopped
for a few days in Karachi, where the police had to throw a cordon around her
hotel to prevent frenzied crowds from mobbing her. During
filming in Lahore, Gardner and her co-star Stewart Granger were guests one
evening at the Punjab Club bar. At one point during the evening, the
somewhat inebriated Granger was rude to Gardner. Upon which, a tough young
Pakistan army captain who was sitting at the bar hauled off and clobbered
Granger. Down went the actor, to applause from the other members. "The
wretched man was being rude to Miss Gardner. We can't have that," said
the indignant army captain. In
several of the movie's scenes, Gardner - who played Victoria, the daughter
of an Anglo-Indian railway-engine driver - wore a sari. I don't think any
woman has ever looked as stunningly beautiful in a sari as Ava Gardner. Time
gets us all in the end. But screen goddesses like Ava Gardner are not
supposed to die anonymous deaths, not if there is any justice in the world.
If they must die, and I suppose they must, they should go out in a blaze of
glory to the sound of trumpets, surrounded by legions of weeping fans
threatening to throw themselves off the top of the tallest nearby building. Ava
Gardner was born on December 24, 1922 in the small farming community of
Brogden, North Carolina, the youngest of seven children of poor cotton and
tobacco farmers. Her mother, Molly, was a Baptist of Scots-Irish descent.
Her father, Jonas Bailey Gardner, was a Catholic of Irish American and
Tuscarora Red Indian descent. It was probably from her father that she
inherited the classic high cheekbones that added to her beauty. While
the children were still young, the Gardners lost their property, forcing
Jonas Gardner to work in a sawmill and Molly to begin working as a cook and
housekeeper at a dormitory for teachers at the nearby Brogden School. The
Great Depression was on and times were hard, but the family somehow managed
to make ends meet. When
Ava was 13, the family decided to try their luck in a bigger town, Newport
News, Virginia, where Molly Gardner found work managing a boardinghouse for
the city's many ship workers. That job did not last long and the family
moved to the Rock Ridge suburb of Wilson, North Carolina, where Molly
Gardner ran another boardinghouse. Gardner's father died of bronchitis in
1935. Ava and
some of her siblings attended high school in Rock Ridge and she graduated
from there in 1939. She then attended secretarial classes at Atlantic
Christian College in Wilson for about a year. The
story about how she got into films is the stuff of legend. According to her
biographers, Gardner, who by the age of eighteen had become a stunning,
green-eyed brunette, was visiting her older sister Beatrice in New York in
1941 when Beatrice's husband Larry Tarr, a professional photographer,
offered to take her portrait. He liked the results (he would have been mad
not to have liked them) and displayed the final product in the front window
of his Fifth Avenue studio. The picture was spotted by an MGM talent scout. Shortly
after, Ava, who at the time was still a student at the Atlantic Christian
College in Wilson, traveled to New York to be interviewed by MGM's New York
office. She was offered a standard film contract by MGM, and Ava left
college for Hollywood in 1941. Soon
after her arrival in Los Angeles, Gardner met actor Mickey Rooney, who was
also under contract to MGM. He was one of the studio's biggest stars, having
played the title role of a lovable teenager in several very popular
"Andy Hardy" films. They got married on January 10, 1942 in
Ballard, California. Gardner
made more than a dozen movies between 1941 and 1945, but it wasn't until she
starred in "The Killers" opposite Burt Lancaster in 1946, that she
became known as a movie star and sex symbol. Rooney and Gardner divorced in
1943, mainly because Rooney wouldn't give up his partying ways. Ava, who had
a ready wit, once characterised their marriage as "Love Finds Andy
Hardy." Her
second marriage was to clarinetist and jazz bandleader Artie Shaw. The
marriage only lasted a year, from 1945 to 1946, and was even more disastrous
than the first. It was during this marriage that Gardner began to drink and
take refuge in therapy. Her
third and last marriage was to singer and actor Frank Sinatra from 1951 to
1957. Sinatra left his wife, Nancy, for Ava and their subsequent marriage
made headlines. Sinatra was savaged by Hollywood gossip columnists Hedda
Hopper and Louella Parsons for leaving his "good wife" for this
exotic femme fatale. Sinatra's
career suffered, while Ava's prospered - the headlines only reinforced her
sexy screen siren image. The marriage to Sinatra was stormy. But Gardner
used her considerable clout to get Sinatra cast in his Best Supporting Actor
Oscar-winning role of Private Maggio in "From Here to Eternity"
(1953), the movie version of American author James Jones' best selling novel
of the same name. That role revitalised Sinatra's acting and singing
careers, which had fallen into the doldrums by the early 1950s. Gardner and
Sinatra remained good friends for the rest of her life.
In
1954, Ava Gardner starred in the film "The Barefoot Contessa."
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and co-starring Humphrey Bogart, Edmund
O'Brien, Maurice Goring and Rossano Brazzi, the film was a cynical and
bizarre tale about a gaggle of Hollywood vultures on a sojourn in Europe. When
the film opened in London's West End in the summer of 1955, the movie's
posters billed Gardner as "the most beautiful animal in the
world." That description might be considered sexist today, but it
certainly got the bit about Gardner's beauty right. She truly was a very
beautiful woman. But she was also something else: a good actress. In the
1953 film "Mogambo," set in East Africa, she turned in a finely
judged performance as a jaded lady with a past who dallied with the great
white hunter, played by Clark Gable. Her rival for Gable's affections was
Grace Kelly, no mean slouch herself in the looks department. Ava was
nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for "Mogambo," but lost out to
Audrey Hepburn in the film "Roman Holiday." Many
thought Gardner's greatest performance was as smalltime hotel owner Maxine
Faulk in "The Night of the Iguana" (1964), co-starring Richard
Burton and Deborah Kerr, for which Gardner, surprisingly, was not nominated.
Although
Gardner's marriage to Sinatra only lasted six years, he never really got
over her. Years later he would say that she was the only woman he ever truly
loved. After
she divorced Sinatra in 1957, Ava headed for Spain where her friendship with
Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway led to her becoming a fan of
bullfighting and bullfighters. She went through one short-lived affair after
another, leaving a trail of devastated suitors in her wake. In the
early 1960s, she took up with the famous Spanish bullfighter Luis Dominguin,
following him to Mexico when he retired from the bullring and took up
residence in Acapulco. A Life magazine reporter once asked Dominguin how he
spent his time now that he had retired. "I do nothing all day and rest
afterwards," the former matador quipped, with a nod in Ava's direction.
But she
had her own retort ready. "Luis is more than magnificent - he's
mediocre," she said. No, they don't make them like Ava Gardner anymore.
By
Saba Ahmed Zara
Hasnat is enthralled with all the excitement of a child as she watches a
wedding ceremony take place before her. It is hard to believe that this
22-year-old juggles her marriage, household chores and university at the
same time, all the while preparing for her first baby. Married
at the age of 19, Zara has lived in Karachi all her life and considers
herself to be a true Karachiite. Zara
now is in the process of completing her BBA from one of the renowned
universities of Karachi. In addition to that she also manages her house and
looks after her extended family. Kolachi:
How do you compare living in Karachi to the rest of the cities in Pakistan? Zara: I
have been to Islamabad and in comparison, this city is far better. Karachi
is anything but dead. It is entertaining
to live in a metropolis where people from various ethnicities live and
interact everyday. Kolachi:
How do you spend your leisure time? Zara:
Mostly shopping and dining out. Kolachi:
What is one thing you abhor about Karachi? Zara:
Late weddings. As it is, weddings are not something I look forward to and
when they stretch beyond the invitation time it just gets infuriating. Kolachi:
What are the things that you truly admire about Karachi? Zara:
The liveliness of this city. It is the most happening city of Pakistan.
Despite all the pollution and traffic jams, the best aspect of Karachi is
that the city never sleeps.The streets are full of people engaged in one
thing or another. Kolachi:
How do you balance studies and family? Zara:
It is not easy! To strike a balance is extremely difficult but not
impossible. The support I get from my husband is commendable. Without his
backing things wouldn't have been so smooth. I have to sacrifice
sleep so I can provide quality time to both. I think setting my
priorities straight makes it more convenient for me to manage studies and
family simultaneously. Kolachi:
What kind of obstacles do you face in keeping up with your studies? Zara:
Like other students I just don't have to focus on my studies but I have to
manage my house too. Although I am blessed with great in-laws who don't
burden me with a lot of work, I have more responsibilities. At times I
have to cook or entertain guests at the cost of studying for an exam. Kolachi:
What motivates you to keep going? Zara:
It has to be my husband. There are times when I just want to leave it but
then my husband's encouragement impels me to complete my degree. Then there
is university life. I look forward to meeting my friends and attending
lectures on campus. Having a life outside home is a reason. Kolachi:
Do you think you want your child to be brought up in Karachi? Zara:
Not really. Witnessing recent events, I would not want my child to grow up
here. The riots, arson and the assassination has not only disturbed grownups
but has negatively influenced the minds of the young ones. If given a choice
I would definitely opt for bringing up my child somewhere safer. Kolachi:
What changes would you want to see in Karachi? Zara: I
would want the city to be peaceful. Without water-shortage and loadshedding.
In short, eliminate those factors that create daily tensions. Kolachi:
What kind of contribution would you like to make for the betterment of
Karachi? Zara:
The biggest contribution is by being a good citizen, who makes a conscious
effort to keep the city clean. I am also interested in social work which
benefits Karachi at large. Kolachi:
Where do you see Karachi 10 years down the road? Zara:
Being aware of the affairs of the city and country, I can conclude that
Karachi is one city which is highly affected at the moment. Be it
economically or socially, the impact on Karachi is all-encompassing. In 10
years' time if we gain political stability, there is nothing that can stop
the city from progressing. Zara is
one of the growing number of young girls who have complied with tradition
and are married and looking after their family while completing their
education at the same time. It is said that an educated mother can shape an
entire civilization and at a time where Pakistan is at the brink of change,
it seems imperative that our coming generations be aware, educated and
mindful of their values. Women
like Zara work hard to reach their goals and keep their families happy;
qualities that will surely lend more to Karachi's character. |
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